by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Productivity, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 13 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Block the block
— From What to Do When it’s Your Turn (and it’s Always Your Turn) by Seth Godin
We’ve all been told that we need to be motivated in order to work or take action on something.
I think it’s important to make a distinction in terms of what we understand and call motivation:
Intrinsic Motivation – this is the reason WHY we do what we do and we take the actions that we take. We work because we need to earn money; we get together with friends because we want to have fun. These examples are simplistic, but they paint the picture. We seldom question this motivation and simply accept it as part of who we are and what we do.
But there’s a second kind of motivation, and that is the one we are talking about here:
Momentary motivation – this is feeling like doing something at a particular moment. Some people think “they need the right cosmic alignment and the proper mood” to start doing their work.
Writers, for example, often cite writer’s block as the reason why they can’t write. “But this is a form of hiding,” says Seth Godin. And I can only imagine that every profession has its own form of a block: the entrepreneur’s block, the lawyer’s block, the architect’s block, the coach’s block, the chef’s block, the nurse’s block, the designer’s block… you’re blocked when you simply don’t find the willingness within you (your mind is not collaborating…) to do the tasks that you must get done, at that moment, to accomplish your work.
What’s the way out? How can you block the block from happening again? Momentary motivation techniques might work, but to ensure that you get rid of the block once and for all, the best antidote is to create a habit.
“A habit of showing up on a regular basis, of writing when it’s time to write [or of (fill-in-the-blank) when it’s time to (fill-in-the-blank)], raising your hand when asked, pitching in every single time. The habit is part of what it means to do work. Your posture of leaning into this opportunity, of connecting and creating and picking yourself: this is your work. How motivated you are today has nothing to do with the opportunity and the obligation you face.”
Building a habit will add consistency to your work, give you a certain routine and schedule, and avoid the block.
ACTION
TODAY: Think of the areas in your life where you sometimes experience a “block.” Make a list of the things that the block represents: what are you hiding from? It could be fear of failure (e.g. by being blocked you don’t write, and if you don’t write then there is no chance you’ll fail); it could be fear of success (e.g. by being blocked you don’t write and thus, there’s no opportunity for success, because you fear that if you succeed wildly your friends will leave you); it could be anything. This is as unique as you, be honest with yourself and give yourself the time to really dive deep and understand what the block means to you. It will be enlightening.
FUTURE: Based on what the block means to you, create the atmosphere and schedule the time so that you can build your habit, overcome the block and thrive. What will building your habit entail? Do you need to go somewhere to work without distraction for a period of time with certain frequency? Do you need to prep some physical or digital tools ahead of time so that you can perform? Do you need to declutter your desk (or the kitchen table) to work from there? Make it as easy as possible to create the habit so that you can have the odds in your favor to succeed.
Know someone who needs to get rid of the block? Help them get unblocked today by sharing with them this post via email, Facebook or Twitter!
by Helena Escalante | Creativity, Growth, Leadership, Marketing, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 37 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Best in the world
— From The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin
The best in the world. Sounds great, doesn’t it? But why is it important? And what exactly does “the best in the world” mean?
A simple Google search for time management yields 138 million results. This implies that there are 138 million resources in cyberspace to help us figure out how to manage our precious time wisely.
Because we are all pressed for time and we don’t like taking risks are the reasons why being #1 matters. “If you’ve been diagnosed with cancer of the navel, you’re not going to mess around with by going to a lot of doctors. You’re going to head straight for the ‘top guy,’ the person who is ranked the best in the world. […] When you’re hiring someone for your team, do you ask your admin to give you the average résumé, or do you ask him to screen out all but the very best qualified people?”
“With limited time or opportunity to experiment, we intentionally narrow our choices to those at the top.” Also, “being at the top matters because there’s room at the top for only a few. Scarcity makes being at the top worth something.”
People who are looking at doing business with you (or with the business that you represent) will be wondering if you are the best in the world. And that deserves a new definition that Godin describes majestically:
“Best as in: best for them, right now, based on what they believe and what they know. And in the world as in: their world, the world they have access to.”
If I’m looking for a dry cleaning service that doesn’t use toxic chemicals, I’ll go with the one that uses organic products to clean, that offers a quick turnaround service, that is affordable, and that is close to where I live. That’s the best in the world for me.
“World is a pretty flexible term… Now there are a million micromarkets [and] each micromarket still has a best. And being the best in that world is the place to be.”
The consumer is the one that decides what is best, thus the term is subjective. And the term world is “selfish,” because it’s the world that the consumer defines based on preference and convenience.
The world got bigger with the Internet opening up a lot of different options to fit our needs and wants. Yet the world also got smaller because of specialization and niching down. Since we cannot be everything to everyone, and the mass market is changing rapidly towards specialization and customization, being the best in the world just got a new definition that, thankfully, involves us all if we want to pursue it.
ACTION
TODAY: Think about your micromarket and write down the answers to these questions: What do you offer that no one else does? What can you be the best in the world at? What needs to happen for you to position yourself to be the best in the world—in your world—however big or small? Also, talk to a few clients or customers today and ask them how they would describe what you do and what value you provide. The answers will reveal things that you may have either taken for granted or would have never even crossed your mind, but that are valuable to your customers.
FUTURE: Talk to as many customers as you can. Find out what are the key aspects of your business that you have to highlight and promote according to what your customers define as best in their world. Then set up a road map to get there. Work on becoming the best in your customers’ world and you and your business will flourish.
Note that this applies to business as well as to any other personal endeavors that you’re involved in: How can you be the best friend in the world? Or the best volunteer in your church? Or the best parent who organizes the bake sale for your child’s school this year? Our lives are made up of different mini-worlds in which best in the (mini)world applies too, for our benefit and the benefit of all involved.
Know someone who needs to read this? Be the best friend in their world today by sharing with them this post via email, Facebook or Twitter!
by Helena Escalante | Celebration, Collaboration, Creativity, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 40 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The Rosenzweig Technique
— From Footprints on the Moon by Seth Godin
The Rosenzweig Technique is named after Franz Rosenzweig, “an author who served in the First World War. He wrote his ideas on postcards and sent them to his mom for safekeeping. He turned them into a book years later.”
Last Summer, a bunch of friends and I exchanged postcards through the mail according to a slightly modified version of The Rosenzweig Technique. It was inspiring, fun and, most of all, we all found ourselves giddy when going to our mailboxes to pick up the correspondence for that day. I’m inviting you to do the same today! While you may or may not write a book out of this, the postcards are a great exercise to share ideas with yourself as you are writing them, and then to reflect over those ideas when you receive them.
Let me share technique as Seth Godin describes it:
“Get a stack of blank postcards… address each of them to yourself, probably at home.
The challenge is simple: Four times a day, fill a postcard with an idea, a message to yourself from today to tomorrow. And then mail it.
A few days later, handwritten ideas from your past yourself will begin to arrive.
Each day, when you get home from work, you’ll get three or four (or even five) ideas worth reading.
As each arrives, your job is to take that germ and write it up, expand it, put it into the word processor on your computer. It’s the end of the day, so there’s no need to worry about checking your email.
Do this for five weeks, for 35 days, for 140 cards. Do it without cease, without hesitation, without regard for whether it’s perfect or not.”
The modified version that I did with my friends was as follows:
- Send a postcard on Day 1 to four people in the group.
- Send a postcard on Day 2 to another four people in the group.
- Keep sending postcards as the days progress to groups of four until everyone has sent a postcard to every member of the whole group.
- Then start again and send more postcards to the first group of four, and so on, until the cycle is complete for 35 days.
While the thoughts that each one of us shared in the postcards were completely spontaneous and random, and we had no control as to when they would be delivered (we live in different countries), the postcards that I got in the mail always seemed to arrive at the right time with the right message on them. I remember, for instance, that I was stuck with a project one day and received a postcard that said, “move forward imperfectly.” Boom!
ACTION
TODAY: Decide if you want to embark in doing The Rosenzweig Technique over the next 35 days. I highly recommend it because of the insights, inspiration and ideas that you can share and receive with yourself/ your friends. Plus, the reflection that this brings as you are writing about the postcards that you receive is invaluable: you’re guaranteed to get more insights, solve a few challenges here and there, and expand your mind. However, if four ideas/thoughts a day for 35 days is too much, feel free to modify the technique however you see fit (for example, one idea per day). Don’t work for the specifics of the technique, instead, make the technique work for you! If you are ready, go get your postcards and your stamps and get started today.
FUTURE: Do you want to do The Rosenzweig Technique with me? I’m starting on March 21 to commemorate Spring, and I’d love to do the modified version again, this time with my fellow gurupies*! 🙂 If you are interested, send me an email (no later than March 19) letting me know that you are in, and I will send you all the details. It doesn’t matter where you live, postcards are used to traveling all over the world. This should be a lot of fun and we will all learn a ton from each other and from our own reflections. Hope you will join me — really looking forward to this! Sorry, this has already been done. We had a blast! If we decide to do it again I’ll post about it so that you can join. 🙂
* Gurupie = blend of guru and groupie = how I fondly refer to the EntreGurus’ community, because we all follow the ideas of the gurus.
Know someone who would like to join the upcoming exchange-of-postcards group? Let that person know via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Goals, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Opportunity, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 34 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Reduce the risk
— From: Habit Changers: 81 Game-Changing Mantras to Mindfully Realize Your Goals by M. J. Ryan
M. J. Ryan relates a story from Sallie Krawcheck, who is one of the most followed “Thought Leaders” on LinkedIn with over 900,000 followers and who was number seven on the Forbes list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women of 2005.
Included among the many hats Sallie has worn in the past, were “the daunting roles of CEO of the newly formed Smith Barney and later president of the Global Wealth and Investment Management division of Bank of America.” When she was offered those roles—which she accepted—she realized that she “was risking ‘public humiliation’ if she failed, but stood the chance of gaining tremendous influence and impact if she succeeded.”
Reduce the risk was Sallie’s mantra and strategy when facing challenges and opportunities. What this meant was “putting a strong team in place with talents and experience that complemented rather than duplicated hers.”
Reducing the risk, then, means intentionally creating an environment and putting fail-safes in place, so that you have the greatest probability of succeeding. Think about it for a moment: it makes perfect sense. Keep in mind that there are always ways in which you can reduce your risk too and change the environment to benefit you.
For example, you can save enough money to have a fall back cushion “if things don’t work out as a start-up CEO; [you can keep] ties to your old community as you move to a new, unfamiliar place; or [you can try out] a new hobby before committing totally.” Big or small, reducing the risk can take many forms, but it always works in your favor.
Now, this doesn’t mean that all risks are worth taking (here’s a great article by Bryan Tracy).You still have to analyze each one that comes your way. But by reducing the risk on those challenges or opportunities that you decide to accept, you’ll have the greatest chance to succeed!
ACTION
TODAY: Think about a challenge or opportunity that you have in front of you now. Yes, that one which you have been pondering without being able to move forward one way or another. Would you be closer to saying yes to it if you could reduce the risk and set up everything-in-your-power for you to succeed? If the answer is no, drop it (remember the easiest way to say no). But if your answer is yes, then make a list of the people, resources, things and actions that you will need to put in place and take one action today that will move you closer to achieving this.
FUTURE: Start creating the habit to look at risk differently: as something that can be reduced so as to maximize your chances for success. Next time you are looking at accepting a challenge or opportunity, create a list of the people, resources, things and actions that you will need to raise your chances of success. Then move forward to implement your fail-safes, and you’ll be on your way very soon!
Know someone who needs to reduce the risk? Please share this post with that person via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 44 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Extreme Ownership
— From Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
The ultimate test for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails. Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, retired U.S. Navy SEALs and experts in building high-performance teams, say that there are only two types of leaders: effective and ineffective.
“Effective leaders lead successful teams that accomplish their mission and win. Ineffective leaders do not.” In our path through leadership, we can all be effective leaders, yet at times, we will be ineffective. Mistakes will be made and things will go wrong. However, as long as we keep in mind the principle of Extreme Ownership, we will be able to move forward along with our team and get another chance at being effective.
The principle behind Extreme Ownership is that “the leader is truly and ultimately responsible for everything… all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. The leader must own everything in his or her world.”
While this may be very simple, it certainly is not easy.
As leaders, applying Extreme Ownership requires humility and courage. We must check our ego at the door and always remember that, “it is all about the Team. The sum is far greater than the parts.” Note that team here is loosely defined to suit your particular case: it could be a small business team, a large corporate team, a sports team, a school team, a military team, a non-profit organization, a country, etc.
Extreme Ownership is about responsibility and ultimate accountability. It requires looking at all the details and making sure that everything is covered, checked, communicated, empowered, enabled, etc., for the team to be able to perform at its highest and best.
Team members that see Extreme Ownership in their leaders “emulate Extreme Ownership throughout the chain of command down to the most junior personnel. As a group they try to figure out how to fix their problems –instead of trying to figure out who or what to blame.” There is a sense of camaraderie and joint desire to fulfill the mission the best way possible.
Extreme Ownership, although it sounds wonderful, is not an easy prize. The leader can never take his/her eye off the goal, there is no time for the leader to coast along, and there is never a moment to rest (figuratively speaking).
Here’s an example of what owning everything means:
“When subordinates aren’t doing what they should, leaders that exercise Extreme Ownership cannot blame the subordinates. They must first look in the mirror at themselves. The leader bears full responsibility for explaining the strategic mission, developing the tactics, and securing the training and resources to enable the team to properly and successfully execute.
If an individual on the team is not performing at the level required for the team to succeed, the leader must train and mentor that underperformer. But if the underperformer continually fails to meet standards, then a leader who exercises Extreme Ownership must be loyal to the team and the mission above any individual. If underperformers cannot improve, the leader must make the tough call to terminate them and hire others who can get the job done. It is all on the leader.”
Think about this last sentence for a second: it is all on the leader. Extreme Ownership can feel overwhelming at first. But think again: doesn’t it give you a sense of relief that success is dependent on you and not on an outside factor that is out of your control? By adopting the Extreme Ownership mindset, you already have (or are resourceful enough to find) the resources to win, or pivot, or fix and move forward, or do whatever you need to do to ultimately succeed with your team. This changes everything (at least for me): overwhelm is gone and empowerment reigns supreme.
Cheers to your success in Extreme Ownership!
ACTION
TODAY: Think about the projects that you are working on now. What is going well? What is not? Take Extreme Ownership of your projects and the teams you lead, and focus your energy on figuring out what you need to do today (apply Extreme Pareto!) to equip and empower your team to succeed.
FUTURE: Adopt the Extreme Ownership mindset and combine it with Extreme Pareto. As you move along, determine what is the one thing that you need to be doing right then to move your team forward to succeed.
Know someone who’s leading a team and could benefit from Extreme Ownership? Please share this post with that person via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Goals, Growth, Habits, Mindset, Planning, Productivity, Resources, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 41 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Extreme Pareto
— From The ONE Thing: The surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan (watch the book trailer)
The to-do list is a magnificent tool and companion to our busy lives. Yet since the list can also serve as a catchall for minor, unimportant things, we feel the urge to get them done and cross them off—just because they were on our list. This leads to us being busy, but not necessarily productive: “busyness rarely takes care of business.”
But if we all have the same 24 hours in a day, how is it that some people seem to achieve much and get a lot of things done? What do they do differently? What do they know that we don’t? “Achievers always work from a clear sense of priority.”
Enter the Pareto Principle. You may be familiar with this already: it’s the 80/20 rule. It states that, “a minority of causes, inputs, or effort [the 20 percent] usually lead to a majority of the results, outputs or rewards [the 80 percent].”
What this means is that 80 percent of our results will come from 20 percent of our focused efforts. Thus, “a to-do list becomes a success list when you apply Pareto’s Principle to it.” The idea is simple, take your to-do list and cull it down to the 20 percent of things that will yield the biggest results.
But why stop there? Gary Keller, author of The ONE Thing, encourages us to practice “Extreme Pareto” to get down to the one item on our to-do list that is the absolutely most essential to our success. He says, “Keep going. You can actually take 20 percent of the 20 percent of the 20 percent and continue until you get to the single most important thing! No matter the task, mission or goal. Big or small. Start with as large a list as you want, but develop the mindset that you will whittle your way from there to the critical few and not stop until you end with the essential ONE. The imperative ONE. The ONE Thing.”
“Sometimes it’s the first thing you do. Sometimes it’s the only thing you do. Regardless, doing the most important thing is always the most important thing.”
ACTION
TODAY: Take a look at your to-do list. Apply the Pareto Principle and focus on narrowing it down to the 20 percent of items that you need to get done. Then go extreme, keep applying the Pareto Principle to narrow it down, 20-percent-at-a-time, until you reach your ONE thing. Get that done before anything else, even if it’s the only thing you do all day.
FUTURE: Make a habit of applying Extreme Pareto when planning the week ahead of you by asking: “What’s the ONE Thing you can do this week such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?” Do that ONE Thing, and once you are done, ask again… and repeat. You’ll see that by focusing on the vital few you’ll be able to move forward more rapidly than if you spend your time and attention in the trivial many.
Know someone who’s spread too thin and could benefit from Extreme Pareto? Please share this post with that person via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
